Search Results for: blog 4 ways a museum membership can be frugal

Family Friendly Volunteering

When you can’t always afford to pay for family fun, you can make your own by volunteering! How Can Volunteering Be Fun? First of all, helping others often puts things in perspective. Benefiting people or even animals that are not as fortunate as you are can make anyone appreciate all that they have. Often it forces even children to look around and start enjoying the blessings they already experience. Volunteering really makes us feel good. It is fun in itself. Studies have shown that people who volunteer tend to me more joyful and happier in life. Isn’ t that a … Continue reading →

Reducing the Cost of Raising a Child

If you read yesterday’s post, you know the estimated cost of raising a child. Now, I’ll take those expenses as outlined by Bankrate and go through some ways of reducing them. Let’s look at some of these expenses and general ways to cut them down. Obviously each person’s situation is different, but these are some ideas to help. Groceries: cook from scratch, use coupons, avoid convenience foods, and make your own lunches. Clothing: Take advantage of hand-me-downs, used clothing sales ad ear-end discounts. Bigger home: Bunk two children in one room, reduce the clutter in your current home to make … Continue reading →

How Are You Spending the Day After Thanksgiving?

I hope that you enjoyed a good Thanksgiving holiday. How are you spending this day after? For us, we started the day by sleeping in for a bit. We had a lot of sleep to make up, thanks to an emergency room visit and a long Thanksgiving day that ended with a two-hour drive back home. We enjoyed the day, but we all feel tired and a bit achy. Our daughter woke up in her fancy dress, too tired to change when my husband carried her to bed half-asleep in the car. Despite the hot fudge stain on it from … Continue reading →

75 Things You Can Do to Save Money

If you need or want to tighten your budget, there are so many things that you can do to save money. Pick a few from the list and get started today, or try them all. It will be nice to have some extra money available. Mow your own lawn and perform lawn care yourself. Drink water instead of flavored drinks. Get rid of the cleaning service. Perform your own minor repairs, such as patching a hole or fixing a leaky faucet. Change your oil in the car. Paint a room yourself. Hand wash clothing instead of taking it to the … Continue reading →

Killing Jack

It looks like we have killed Jack. At the end of the day, this may have been a good thing, although the kids are still saddened by Jack’s passing. But it really wasn’t our fault. Or at least we can claim ignorance and self defense rather than outright murder. Please don’t hate us. Here is how it happened. First, let me reassure you that Jack is not a person. Nor is Jack an animal or any mammal or rodent or bird. Jack is plant, well many plants, and therefore many Jacks. He emerged one day (along with his doplegangers) this … Continue reading →

Free Kids Activities at Lowes

A while ago I brought you information about kids workshops at the Home Depot. These workshops are free for kids, and are generally held on one or more Saturdays in the month. Well, now I want to talk about the free kids activities at the Lowe’s home improvement store. The projects offered by Lowe’s for their Build and Grow Clinics are quite impressive. You won’t find any plain wooden boxes here. There are two upcoming workshops this month that look interesting. (Lowe’s offers the activities every two weeks.) The first is an art house! I’m not sure if the ants … Continue reading →

Free Educational Opportunities

If one of your new years resolution is to improve your career or yourself, look into educational opportunities. If you know where to search, you find plenty of free or low cost classes, lectures and other educational opportunities. Check out the following opportunities. They may just change your life. If you are currently employed outside of the home, you should have access to a wide range of educational opportunities thanks to your boss. Most companies have some sort of employer reimbursement for education, whether it is one class or an entire degree. In order to quality, the educational opportunity usually … Continue reading →

Top Frugal Blogs of 2007

I hope your new year celebration was joyous and fun! Think of all of the good things that happened in your life in 2007 and look forward to all of the good things to come in 2008! Did you save a lot of money this year? Did you put into place some frugal practices that you can keep for life? The new year is always a time for a new start. So if you have a financial goal, such as paying for a vacation, becoming a stay at home parent or just using your resources wisely, the Frugal Living Blog … Continue reading →

Free and Frugal Board Games

The Internet is full of great of ideas for free and frugal board games. Some of these games can be played with only a few coins in your pocket. Others require the use of simple game boards and pieces that you already have around your home, such as chess or checkers. Still others can be downloaded in their entirety as pdf files and then printed. So when the rainy days strike, or when you are just looking for something to do as a family that doesn’t require spending money or television, consider trying a free board game. You can do … Continue reading →

Have A Frugal Picnic

Does anyone have any nice plans for labor day? If not, why not have a picnic? Picnics can be very frugal, especially if you follow some of the following ideas. To reduce food waste, why not pack individual lunches for each person, selecting things you know they will eat. Pack it all up in individual plastic beach pails. These can be found for pennies right now as stores are trying to get rid of their summer inventory. This way, dad can have his beloved cold fried chicken, while the kids can cart their own sandwiches, grapes, etc. Use the pails … Continue reading →